LinkedIn cofounder and billionaire investor Reid
Hoffman is one of the most influential people in Silicon
Valley.

He has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on
Democratic candidates and organizations, including the
controversial "Win the Future" initiative.

He considers his activist role to be his
obligation.

Like his close friend Peter Thiel, LinkedIn cofounder and
Greylock Partners investor Reid
Hoffman was invigorated by the election of President Donald
Trump — but for the opposite reason.

He has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Democratic
candidates and organizations since Trump has taken office, and he
told Business Insider he sees it as his obligation.

Hoffman has been a Democratic donor for a while, having donated
$1 million to President Barack Obama's reelection campaign in
2012, but his hatred for Trump has led him to take a much more
prominent role in politics.

This also included his participation in the $500,000 seed round
of Zynga founder Marc Pincus' political initiative
Win the Future (WTF), and his role as an adviser to Pincus.
Critics on the left, including in outlets like the
HuffPost and
Vanity Fair, criticized the notion of two tech billionaires
who think they know what's best for the Democrats.

In a recent interview for Business Insider's podcast
"Success!
How I Did It," we asked Hoffman why he thinks taking a more
prominent role in politics is a good idea, especially in the
context of growing suspicions around the influence of big money
on campaigns.

"Well, just because it's money doesn't necessarily mean it's
corrupting or challenging. I think with power comes
responsibility — it's essentially Spider-Man ethics," he said,
referencing the guiding principle of the comic book hero. "And
money is essentially ... power. I try to do a set of investments
and things that really enhance human potential, including within
political or other arenas."

You can listen to the full episode
here:

He invested $300,000 into the
Democratic PAC Win Virginia ahead of election day this year,
which was about a third of its funding, according to the
Washington Post. The Virginia elections were seen as an
experiment on how to run progressive campaigns under Trump, and
Hoffman paid close attention. The Democrats ended up taking the
governorship and 15 state delegate seats from Republicans.

Hoffman has said he doesn't want to be seen as the left's version
of the billionaire conservative donors the Koch brothers, but
rather approaches politics the same way he does tech startups.

"Overall, I would say that I kind of take a Silicon Valley
investing approach to the whole thing, which is: I look for where
I can invest money, time, support in a project [that] could make
a really big difference in the world, including potentially a
really big difference in providing the right sort of governance
for the society that we all live in," he said.